


A Worthy Addition

by firewolfsg



Series: A Second Chance at Life AU [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn - Timothy Zahn
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Child Neglect, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-14 01:07:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11772291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firewolfsg/pseuds/firewolfsg
Summary: Thrass recounts to Eli Vanto, the events that led to the Merit Adoption of the brothers into the Eighth Ruling Family.





	A Worthy Addition

_“I want to bring them into the family, father.”_

_Mitth’gur’safis sighed as he looked away from his datapad to his daughter. “Thfliro, we have this—talk with *every* batch of orphans that pass through the doors of your institute._

_The headstrong woman shook her head firmly. “This time, I mean it father.”_

_“Mitth’flir’ora—”_

_“Please father. I am very serious about bringing these two boys into the family.”_

_“Just two?”_

_“I’ve spoken to you about these two before, father.”_

_“Ahhh.” The patriarch of the Eighth Ruling Family nodded in memory. “The siblings from the batch of Vagaari orphans?” He frowned at the thought. “It has been over four years, surely someone must have shown an interest?”_

_“The little one has a heart condition.”_

_“That explains it. And I suppose the elder brother refused to leave him behind.”_

_“Ras insists they come as a matched set no matter what his little brother may try to say.” She gave him a wry smile. “They are bright children, father. The two have probably already read every book in the orphanage library.”_

_“Both? The younger boy can’t be more than five?”_

_“Both. The Institute will always try its best to provide, but with these two boys?” Thfliro took her father’s hand in earnest. “Their intelligence far outstrips the instructors that we have, father. They need more and it would be a crime to limit their development because we don’t have the resources.”_

_Mitth’gur’safis stared his daughter in the eye for a long moment. “Adoption is not a trivial matter, Mitth’flir’ora. We have to send a call out to the cousins and check if there is any interest in the families to add—new blood.”_

_“They are worthy to be Merit Adopted, father.” She offered a data chip. “These are their class evaluations and test results for the last two years.”_

_“Two—? Thfliro, the younger one started taking tests at *three*?”_

_“Little Raw was impatient.” She smiled wryly. “If we’d let him, he might have tried to study at the same level as his brother. Even so, both are taking classes beyond their age group._

_“They are worthy to be Merit Adopted.” She repeated firmly._

_Mitth’gur’safis rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he reviewed the files his daughter had provided. “Remarkable. And no couple or family seeking to adopt will look at them because of the child’s weak heart?”_

_“None… Not especially the Fifth Ruling Family.”_

_He looked up at her sharply. “Is that so? I thought Chaf’orm’bintrano was looking to add new blood to his family… We saw that as his excuse to try and reclaim those of his blood.”_

_Thfliro snorted. “They did approach the Institute, but showed only interest in the elder brother. Also, Ras will not speak nor entertain an audience of any from the Fifth Ruling Family.”_

_“I remember you came crying to me some four years ago regarding the younger boy.” Mitth’gur’safis reminded her softly. “You were telling me then that the medical staff were quite sure the boy was not going to live to see his third year.”_

_“And the medical staff now tell me that he won’t live to see his twentieth year.” Thfliro sniffed dismissively. “Raw is stubborn enough to prove to everyone his resolve to survive and thrive beyond anyone’s expectations.”_

_“You are determined?”_

_“Yes, father.”_

_Mitth’gur’safis studied his daughter for a long moment. “I need to meet the siblings first.”_

_“I would expect nothing less, father” She grinned at him, making him look at her suspiciously._

_“You know I have little patience with the young.”_

_“Ras has never been young. He has been taking the responsibility of care of his younger brother since he was six. And Raw may be just five, but he is a very serious child.” She smirked at him. “I believe you will find old souls when you look in their eyes.”_

* * *

_It was decided that the children of the orphanage would be taken on an outing to the museum that was near the cache home. Prospective parents were invited as well to participate and come along as helpers to observe the child they were thinking of taking in. Mitth’gur’safis was not among them. To his daughter’s disappointment, the patriarch of the Eighth Ruling Family was going to stay in the background and observe._

_This was fortunate, though. For it wasn’t very long after the group had entered the museum that Mitth’gur’safis noticed 10-year-old Ras, pull on his daughter’s skirt to whisper something in her ear. She had frowned at the boy, but gave her grudging nod for him to depart with his little brother in tow on a different route to that of the noisy crowd. At receiving a significant look from his daughter, Mitth’gur’safis could not help but take her unspoken instruction to follow in curiosity._

_It didn’t take but a minute for the Patriarch to realise that it wasn’t Ras who was leading this side trip, but his little brother Raw who was dragging his sibling to another wing of the museum. To his great surprise, little Raw had lead them to a wing where a new exhibit had been set up a couple of weeks earlier. Mitth’gur’safis had nearly forgotten about the interest he himself had expressed in checking it out after the initial crowds had died down. Given how isolationistic the Chiss were, Mitth’gur’safis was surprised at the attention which could be gathered about art made and brought in from the edges of Chiss space._

_A second surprise was that it was the younger child who was quietly murmuring to the elder brother in observation and evaluation of the various art pieces. In fact, they seemed to be making quite a game of guessing whether the artist was a Chiss or an alien before verifying this detail on the plaque beside the artwork._

_It was about an hour into this exploration that Raw turned to look directly at him, bringing Ras’ tensed look in his direction too. Mitth’gur’safis held out his bare hands in a gesture of harmless intensions as he approached the brothers._

_“Why have you been following us?” Ras asked him cautiously as he picked up his little brother as if he’d be prepared to run if necessary._

_“It was just concern on my part.” Mitth’gur’safis told them honestly. “Children really should not be left unattended and without adult supervision in a museum. I arrived late and received Matron Thfliro’s direction to follow you.”_

_“You look like Matron Mitth’flir’ora.” Raw told him solemnly as one hand reached to grip a lock of his brother’s longish hair while the other curled around Ras’ shoulders._

_“You are of the Eighth Ruling Family.” Ras observed of him. “You are a direct blood since your robes are primarily of dark burgundy red without any grey._

_Raw frowned at him. “You are the Matron’s father.”_

_Mitth’gur’safis stared at the younglings. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”_

_Ras gave his little brother an encouraging look, understanding that the question was not directed at him. “You look very like Matron Mitth’flir’ora. She has also mentioned to us previously that hers is a small family with distant cousins and she only has one younger brother. You are older than she is, and you called her by her core name.”_

_“You grace us with your company, Patriarch Mitth’gur’safis.” Ras nodded to him. The boy obviously full of pride in his little brother’s clearly correct assessment. “I am Ras, and my brother is Raw, but this you probably knew from Matron Mitth’flir’ora.”_

_Mitth’gur’safis couldn’t help his cough of laughter. “Thfliro did tell me that you two are sharp.”_

_“We did not mean to cause alarm or trouble.” Ras lowered his head respectfully._

_“None was caused.” Mitth’gur’safis quickly assured them. “I was wondering why you two did not want to accompany the rest of your cache mates.”_

_“We’ve already seen the regular exhibits.” Ras wrinkled his face in boredom._

_“And this is *Art* we’ve never had exposure to before; most of the artists in this exhibit are not Chiss.” Raw told him with an air of excited wonder which made Mitth’gur’safis smile._

_“You like to analyse art?”_

_Ras shook his head as he looked at his brother indulgently. “Not me. I appreciate it, but only my brother thinks it more important than the air that we breathe.”_

_“The compositions tell you much about the race and culture that the artist comes from.” A skinny arm stretched out to point at the sculpture they’d been about to look at. “This one is done by a race that has an extra joint between wrist and elbow and who sees primarily in the blue-ultraviolet part of the spectrum.”_

_Mitth’gur’safis’ had initially smiled indulgently at the child as he clicked on the datapad the museum had given to him at his entrance, until he found the description provided to patrons that was not printed on the plaque beside the art piece. His eyes widened in astonishment to read about the race called the Frunchettan-sai who lived near the outer rim of Chiss space._

_“You can see that in the art work?” He stared from the sculpture to the siblings._

_“Isn’t it obvious?” Raw frowned at both of them._

_Ras gave Mitth’gur’safis a helpless shrug, rather obviously showing that his little brother’s powers of observation in art was as much a mystery to him._

_The Patriarch of the Eighth Ruling Family would freely admit that he had initially taken interest only in the elder brother that his daughter had brought to his attention, but after this demonstration… He was intrigued._

_Looking down at the two children, he made a decision right there. “There is still more to see, would you mind if I accompanied you? I would be interested to hear your observations.”_

_“I would bore you.” Raw dipped his head in sudden shyness._

_“Not at all.” Mitth’gur’safis quickly assured the child. “In fact, we can probably walk a lot longer if you would accept me carrying you?”_

_Mitth’gur’safis looked from one brother to the next. Ras had tensed at the offer, and Raw had looked up sharply at him. But Mitth’gur’safis knew he’d won when Raw released his brother’s hair to shyly stretch an arm towards him._

_Mitth’gur’safis bent to take the tiny boy from his brother and gave the datapad to Ras in exchange. “I’m a patron of this museum, so you can follow along on the datapad and tell us when your brother is correct in his assessments.”_

_“Ooohhh! Raw, you were right about the alien’s physical description.” Ras excitedly spoke as he tilted the screen of the datapad to showed his brother the picture of the Frunchettan-sai artist that created the sculpture._

_“I told you it was obvious.”_

_And so, Mitth’gur’safis spent the rest of the day in the company of this pair of brothers, absolutely charmed by this game that they played in examining and discussing a piece of art for the younger brother to identify the physical and occasionally psychological traits of the race that the artist came from, with his brother verifying the details from the datapad given to him. He found them polite, well-mannered and also properly modest when ordering from the children’s menu at the café he’d brought them to for the midday meal, tea and later dinner and supper._

_It made Mitth’gur’safis frown during their first meal, however, when Raw initially didn’t finish his plate of food and asked to have the remainder packed. The tiny boy ate far less than he would have expected of him, and he clearly couldn’t afford to when he was already so thin. Then, Mitth’gur’safis overheard his brother’s whispered advice to him that they didn’t need to hide food anymore, and that Matron would be checking if they were hungry later anyway and would feed them a second supper without question if they asked. It reminded the Patriarch of the Eighth Ruling Family of his daughter’s assessment to him years earlier of the life the brothers had to endure as children of Vagaari slaves, and the casual abuse the mother subjected them to rather than caring for their needs as best as she could have. Mitth’gur’safis tried very hard not to show that he had overheard the whispered conversation and was pleased to see the boy properly clean his plate at his brother’s urging._

_Upon the offer of dessert though, the two boys firmly claimed that they had eaten enough. So, Mitth’gur’safis asked that they indulged an old man and assist him in eating an after-meal sweet which he just couldn’t do without. He then proceeded to discreetly ask the waiter to serve a double portion of the chosen dessert. Ras had given him a look of suspicion when the huge plate of cake, berries and frozen cream was placed before them, but Raw looked entranced._

_Mitth’gur’safis had to admit to being very pleased to see that the brothers really enjoyed the dessert. They were not at all messy in their indulgence too, and he thought the five-year-old showed a remarkable maturity in placing down his spoon when he’d had enough; showing that he was aware of his limits and would not gorge himself till he was sick._

_Well fortified with food and drink on their tour, Mitth’gur’safis was surprised at the energy he himself displayed in taking the brothers to every exhibit available for their viewing pleasure. He even brought them to the gift shop after tea and offered to buy them a toy each, though the brothers initially refused. He only managed to change their minds when he asked them to think of it as something to commemorate this fine exhibit which would eventually move away in a few more weeks._

_Ras chose a modest data chip of the exhibit, which Mitth’gur’safis was wily enough to substitute at the cashier with a more elaborate and extensive piece that carried greater information about the exhibit than they currently had with the museum’s datapad. Raw almost wouldn’t choose anything, since he already saw his brother picking up a data chip which he knew had been chosen specially with him in mind. Still, with the cajoling of his elder brother who had placed him in front of the abundantly packed stands of soft toys, Raw finally reached deep into the pile to pull out a strange looking furry, yellow lizard with a long snout, droopy ears and four beady black eyes._

_The cashier had expressed some surprise at seeing it since the tiny toy apparently was not very attractive or large, and they hadn’t ordered many of them. Her offer of something larger only made Raw clutch onto the strange little thing a lot tighter, telling her that small didn’t mean it wasn’t any good. The statement almost broke Mitth’gur’safis heart to think that the little boy had probably heard this said of him many times because of his scrawny and less than average size. Admiral Sch’noz’zlar stayed tightly clutched in his skinny arms for the rest of their tour._

_Mitth’gur’safis was almost sorry that their time together had to finally come to an end when the museum guards politely asked them to depart so that they could close for the day. Raw was a deeply slumbering bundle against his shoulder and his brother was hardly any better as a yawning stumbling little boy clinging to his hand for support, when Mitth’gur’safis finally delivered the children back to the Institute. His daughter had an insufferable smile on her face when she opened the door to greet him._

_Ras had presence of mind to grip his hand in both of his to thank him for a wonderful time at the exhibit before his daughter’s aide took the still peacefully sleeping Raw from him and gently ushered the yawning boy off towards the bedrooms. It took a while for Mitth’gur’safis to look away as they disappeared into the cache home before he could give his attention to his daughter._

_“Well, father? You did surprise me in taking them with you for so long.” Thfliro smiled a knowing smile at her father. “I was about to send a search party out for you when you finally arrived.” Glancing at the clock in the hallway before turning back to him, she added, “It is far beyond their normal bed time.”_

_Mitth’gur’safis heaved out a huge sigh. “You win, Thfliro. I will put through the paperwork to have Mitth’ras and Mitth’raw brought into our family.”_

_“Oh!” Thfliro’s eyes widened at this unexpected claim. “You would bring them into *our* family?”_

_Mitth’gur’safis scoffed at his daughter’s reaction. “I would not trust anyone else in the Eighth Ruling Family to see to their further development.”_

_Thfliro outright grin at his words made him groan inwardly. His was quite sure his daughter would be insufferable to live with over the next few years._

_At the end of the day though, Mitth’gur’safis was sure the Eighth Ruling Family would gain much prestige for the adoption. He was also somehow sure that the elder brother would eventually earn the honour of being Trial Adopted when he came of age to be granted the name Mitth’ras’safis._

_Little Mitth’raw though… he couldn’t say. His fascination with the arts was heart warming to observe. However, somehow… Mitth’gur’safis suspected that there was more to be made of his talent in keen observation._

_It was a thought that entered his mind again when Mitth’gur’safis was looking over a letter from Sev’eere’nuruodo of the Second Ruling Family asking after his health and requesting a meeting to go over some details they had received regarding the duties the two Families held responsibility over. Mitth’gur’safis wondered if the woman would be as charmed by Mitth’raw if he asked her to bring over a piece of art by the Vagaari pirates she hunted and asked him to provide an insight of their culture…_

* * *

Mitth’ras’safis fingered the well worn and faded soft toy he held in his hand as he finished telling Eli Vanto the story of how he and his brother came to be Merit Adopted by the Eighth Ruling Family. With his beady black eyes long replaced with tiny black buttons, and his body now nearly threadbare and faded to white rather than its original vibrant yellow, Admiral Sch’noz’zlar had certainly seen better days.

“Thrawn wasn’t allowed to take anything with him when he was exiled?” Eli asked softly.

“No. And I can’t imagine he would have taken Admiral Sch’noz’zlar with him even if he was allowed to take anything.” Thrass admitted as he stood to put the precious soft toy back into its glass case on the mantelpiece. “Oh, he carried this little thing with him everywhere when we lived in the Mitth household. But Thrawn began leaving him behind with me when he first entered the Naval academy, and later when he’d be posted out on his assignments…

“That first time he left Admiral Sch’noz’zlar with me though?” Thrass coughed in laughter, “when he had to leave for the Academy? Ktah, he was only *13.* The youngest to ever be admitted because of his test scores.

“I wondered if he was going to miss his soft toy more than he was going to miss me.”

“Well, he left a data chip for you and didn’t mention anything about his old toy.” Eli pointed out diplomatically. “And didn’t he say in his letters to you that he was coming back? You’ll both be here for him when he does.”

“Yes,” Thrass looked back at the toy in the glass case. “Yes, we will.”

“What type of creature is it, anyway?” Eli asked curiously. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“You’ve never encountered it in your universe?” Thrass looked at him curiously. “There was no name of species attached to it at the gift store. It was supposed to be representative of a lizard common to one of the planets at the edge of Chiss space.”

Eli shook his head. “Can’t say I ever came across anything like it. Oh wait—it does look something like the pair of statues that Thrawn has in his office on the Chimera. But those were green with lots more teeth.”

“Curious…”

Eli shrugged.

* * *

Thrawn absently stroked Honey’s soft belly as the Ysalamir lay snoozing across his lap while he contemplated the technical specs hovering above his desk. A gentle nudge atop his head brought his attention to Cinnamon who was sitting on his chair and flicking a tongue at him. The male Ysalamir gave Thrawn a more purposeful push with his snout as if to nudge him out of his seat and towards his bedroom.

It made Thrawn glance at the chronometer in surprise, before he looked up at the Ysalamir again. “All right, Cinnamon. I will take the hint and rest.”

The Ysalamir chirp at him in approval and quickly slinked down to curl around Thrawn’s shoulders before he came to his feet with Honey in his arms. She stirred long enough to chirp at him as he carried her over to the sustenance tree in his bedroom and gently curled her claws around one of the brunches; only letting go when he was sure she was securely anchored. It wouldn’t be long before she’d be ready to lay her eggs.

Cinnamon chirruped in his ear and gave Thrawn a lick on the cheek before he scampered off his shoulders and headed directly to the bed. Thrawn glowered at the lizard which was looking at him expectantly from the middle of the bed.

“I swear, with the way you boss me around, Cinnamon, I should be calling you Admira—” Thrawn started in surprise as a thought came to him. “Oh, so you’re what Admiral Sch’noz’zlar was based on.”

He coughed softly in laughter at the whimsical nature of fate, and wondered if Thrass would show off his beloved soft toy to Commander Vanto. The Eighth Ruling Family, Thrass, Eli… he would trust that they were all safe on Csilla and that someday he would return to see them again.

End


End file.
